Malaysia's largest
agricultural product - the Palm Oil. Both local and international demand growing
steadily.

Sabah is the largest palm oil producer in Malaysia, It has about 1.2 million hectares of some of the
highest-yielding oil palm plantations (21.4 metric tones per hectare) producing
5 million MT of palm oil yearly.

Palm oil will soon replace soya bean oil as the mostly widely
consumed edible vegetable oil in the world. Palm oil's nutritional value and the
potency of its phytonutrients, not to mention its growing use in biofuel, are
set to establish the oil's global dominance,

Malaysia is the biggest producer of palm oil in the world and is an
internationally recognized authority in palm oil cultivation and processing
technologies, The country produces 14 million metric tones of palm oil annually
(2004 world output 30.6 million MT) from about 4 million hectares of oil
palm. Combined with the 12 million MT produced in neighboring Indonesia, the
region commands 86% of the world's production.

Sabah Softwoods
Berhad’s operating activities are on two blocks of land
totalling 61,000 hectares sub-leased from Sapangar Sdn Bhd. of
Yayasan Sabah. These blocks are commonly referred to as “Brumas”
and “Kalabakan”.

A 13 months part-time programme to
provide working adults an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals
of plantation management with a strong base for onward career
progression and development.

The course is conducted in English
as well as in Bahasa Malaysia.

University of Malaya Centre for
Continuing Education
Level 3, A Block,
University of Malaya City Campus, Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala
Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Tel: +603-2617 3111 Fax: +603-2617 3110 Email: umcced@um.edu.my

Malaysia oil palm plantations area increase year by year,
this may caused
the primary forest in Malaysia decreasing in
area year by year.

But this is no so as new oil palm plantation are
actually established on and logged-over forests and in areas
previously cultivated with rubber, cocoa and coconut. Almost two
thirds of Malaysia is still covered by forest area of permanent forest
reserve - 19.54 million hectares.

Sabah has given rise to a new breed of
entrepreneurs. In Tawau over the past decades many cocoa plantations
have switched from cocoa to planting oil palm. Oil palm has a huge
worldwide demand and fetching top dollar in exports. These new oil palm
plantations with crop mature the last few years came the creation of
many new millionaires. Even when the prices dropped, most of the
planters were still raking in profits as their cost of maintenance and
production was minimal. In turn the planters invest their money in local
property market.

Oil
palm plantation in Malaysia has great biodiversity than in the
case of annual cereals, vegetables and other short-term cropping systems
of the world. A typical oil palm plantation is teemed with 268 species of
flora and fauna, which include microbes, insects, arthropods, reptiles,
fish, birds and small mammals. In addition to the rearing of fish, cattle,
and goats together intercropping with fruit trees, timber species, dry
land rice and vegetables, thereby adding to the rich diversity of life in
the plantations.

Palm Oil has been used as a
dietary constituent for five thousand years. The first oil palm
plantation in Malaysia started in 1917 when Oil Palm trees was first
introduced to Malaysia as an ornamental tree. The seeds were iat first
sowed on a tract of land in Kuala Selangor and the seedlings were later
planted on a large scale in Tennamaram Estate by M. H. Fauconnier, . This
paved the way for the prolific expansion of oil palm cultivation in
Malaysia.

Soon, Alexander Guthrie, founded the
Guthrie stable of estates and John Middleton Sime teamed up with Henry
Darby to establish the Sime Darby group of estates. The two were later
joined by Socfin and United Plantations which remain to this day as major
players in the Malaysian oil palm industry.

Today the largest Palm Oil Company in
Malaysia is Synergy Drive Sdn. Bhd. which was formed after merging
Golden Hope Plantations Bhd., Sime Darby Bhd. and Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd.

Synergy Drive Sdn. Bhd. (the combination
of 3 companies) have more than 500,000 hectares (1,300,000 acres)
of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia and Indonesia, producing more than 2
million tons crude palm oil every year. This is equivalent to 13% of
Malaysia's total production.

Cooking Oil

Due to its low rate of duration, palm oil
is indeed an economical cooking oil

Margarine

Palm Oil margarine can be easily spread and
resistant to rancidity

Shortening

Palm Oil shortening is suitable for making
bread, cakes, pastries and sweets

Confectionery

Chocolates and confectionery made with palm
based cocoa butter substitute are closely similar to those produced with
cocoa butter.

Non-Diary Creamers

Palm based non-diary
creamer gives smoother, taster and more satisfying cup of coffee

Palm oil is
the most traded vegetable oil in the world. The
oil is obtained from the mesocarp of the palm
fruit, by cooking, mashing and pressing. In this
process, the seeds are separated and after
cracking and removing the shell, the kernel can
be processed to yield palm kernel oil and palm
kernel cake.